PROPOSED SCOTTISH ELECTORAL BOUNDARIES CROSS REGIONS

The Scottish Boundary Commission has recommended constituencies which cross boundaries between Borders and Lothian ...

The Scottish Boundary Commission has recommended constituencies which cross boundaries between Borders and Lothian regions and Central and Tayside regions.

According to a report laid before the House of Commons by Scottish secretary Ian Lang, this was done to provide a better balance of electorate. Previously, no boundary had been crossed, though district boundaries had, and Orkney and Shetland Islands areas had been amalgamated for Parliamentary constituency purposes.

Other main points of the commission's report are:

- Scotland should continue to be divided into 72 constituencies. The island areas should compromise two constituencies as at present

- urban depopulation in Strathclyde, particularly in the Glasgow, led to a reduction of one seat in Glasgow to 10 seats

- an extra seat has been allocated to Grampian region, reflecting the increase in electorate in north-east Scotland. Increases in electorate also occurred in other rural parts of Scotland, but in areas like Tayside and Lothian these increases were balanced by reduction in the cities

-the average electorate for the purposes of this review was 54,569 (the average electorate in Scotland in 1992, when the review commenced). The recommended constituencies have electorates ranging from 67,001 (Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley) to 23,015 (Western Isles). However, 69% of the proposed constituencies (compared with only 42% of the current constituencies) are within 10% of the average electorate.

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